Hartford Parents Outraged, Disappointed At Decision To Replace School Leader

Students and parents of students speak at a meeting centered around resistance to the school district's decision to remove Renzulli Academy lead teacher Freddie DeJesus.

A decision to replace the leader of Hartford’s academy for gifted and talented students has set off a firestorm of protest by parents this week.

Parents of students at the Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli Gifted and Talented Academy in Hartford say they are outraged and disappointed at a decision to replace Freddie DeJesus and they have made their views known on Facebook and in a letter to Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez.

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Justin McGlamery, the parent of two children at the school, posted a lengthy endorsement of DeJesus, who has led the school as a lead teacher for the past two years and was a classroom teacher there for eight years before that, saying he “fulfilled all administrative roles, seamlessly and always with positive energy and concern for the students and his staff. He is the first one to arrive and the last one to leave.”

McGlamery said that DeJesus “DJ’s the dances, shoots hoops with the students, personally organizes and runs field days,” creates “amazing learning opportunities” including securing tickets to “Hamilton” for eighth-graders, and is someone who children seek out to share “stories and events from their lives, happy and sad.”

A letter dated Monday from the Renzulli Parent Teacher Organization to Torres-Rodriguez questioned how a new leader could be assigned to their school without any notification to parent leaders. The letter said it is “unusual to find an administrator that is as good a fit to a school as Mr. DeJesus” and said it is “extremely irresponsible and unprofessional behavior by the district to have a change in administration three months into the school year.”

Torres-Rodriguez responded to the PTO in a letter Wednesday agreeing that parents should be promptly notified when leadership decisions are made. But she did not address why DeJesus was not selected for the newly created position of assistant principal.

“The problem here was that one or more people involved in the process inappropriately and prematurely shared information about the selection process,” Torres-Rodriguez’s letter said. “We are just now finalizing our decision … and it was inappropriate and a violation of our selection procedures for those involved in the process to share information before we made our final decision and communicated it to the parent community.”

Torres-Rodriguez said in the letter that the chief of schools and the executive director of leadership completed the final interviews of the candidates. The new leader of the school will have the title of assistant principal — rather than principal. The tiny school — only 130 students in the fourth through eighth grades — serves some of the brightest children in Hartford.

John Fergus, spokesman for the Hartford district, said the new assistant principal will be announced soon. He said he couldn’t comment further on DeJesus.

Craig Stallings, chairman of the Hartford Board of Education, said the board hires principals, but does not play a role in the hiring of assistant principals.

DeJesus, reached at the school Wednesday, said he can’t say much about the situation but he is concerned that students will distracted by it.

“I love being here. My job is to make sure we do what’s best for the kids. They always come first,” DeJesus said. “I want it continue to be academic and to be as normal as possible … I’m trying to stay out of it as much as possible.”

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DeJesus said he doesn’t know where he will work next exactly but expects to stay in Hartford. “There will be something for me in the district,” he said. “I just don’t know what it will be.”

McGlamery’s Facebook post, which garnered dozens of comments of support and was shared more than 400 times, said the loss of DeJesus will “directly impact the social emotional well-being of students and negatively impact the culture and climate of the Renzulli Academy.”

McGlamery said in an interview Wednesday that DeJesus is a “capable, intelligent, deeply caring and compassionate leader” who is respected and loved by students and staff alike.

Maxine Robinson, another parent of a student at Renzulli and a former president of the school’s PTO, said that “hands down, [DeJesus] is one of the best in the district. Hartford is talking about how to increase minority recruiting. Now you have a Hispanic male who is in a position to lead a school and you are trying to remove him.”

The parents say they are particularly confused because they say the district had assured the School Governance Council that DeJesus would be appointed an administrator at the school after he earned his certification for intermediate administration.

“Since earning his certification,” the letter from the PTO to Torres-Rodriguez said, “he has been running the school; presiding over [Parent and Placement Team] meetings; attending all PTO/[School Governance Council] meetings; facilitating staff meetings, working to increase enrollment; required by the district to attend administrative meetings — all on a teacher’s salary.”

The letter also noted that DeJesus had extensive training in gifted and talented education, working with Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli, the co-founder of the academy and an internationally-renowned expert on the subject.

Sally Reis, who is Renzulli’s wife and worked with him at UConn to develop a schoolwide enrichment model as a way of teaching high potential and gifted children, said that she and her husband were disappointed to hear that DeJesus would be replaced.

“I have a really good relationship with Freddie and I think I actually helped to hire him and support him and nurture him,” Reis said. “It’s a difficult thing for us because it’s a personnel issue and its an internal matter but I think Freddie did an outstanding job and I have been a supporter of his.”

McGlamery said the parents and students are planning a walkout at noon Friday to protest the replacement of DeJesus.